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This new city I built in the Berlin region is not only the most profitable so far but it's also has the smoothest traffic ever.... until I built an ill-planned city block. The traffic rating then plunged to a worrying dark green. Fuck that, I'm gonna bulldoze that place

On last mission of Theme Hospital. Got figured out how to stop my machine blowing up and how to fight off epidemics as well as ensure my staff is well trained.

Only the beginning causes problems as you must expand as quickly as possible to ensure a nice constant flow of money. Last mission supposed to be much more difficult than rest of the game so I'll see how it goes.

It's a good game, but it feels like eating a fine peace of meat swimming in a mediocre gravy. The main story is quite good and well written, most of the secondary quest lines (guilds and houses) are also well done and the gameplay is superb. The fighting mechanics are not too complex, but they are much more than just press button until bad things are dead.

But the big problem is that it looks like the development motto was "more is better". So there are dozens of boring side quests (go to cave-->kill inhabitants-->bring back trinket/kill someone/rescue someone-->Go back-->collect reward--->sell reward), every character has tons of dialog options (all voiced) that add nothing to the game and the story and there are lots of walking from point A to B to C and back (there is fast travel, but it's only in the main map. not in dungeons and cities).

The game also looks very bland. It's nicely drawn and there are more than a few pretty places, but everything looks extremely bland with low-res textures and no lighting effects.

But despite all that I did had a good time playing it, but I think it's because I skipped plenty of side quests and dialog options (took me 60 Hrs to complete). I think that if the developers had focused more on telling an epic story and less shoving boring and pointless content, it could have turned into a big hit for them (but sadly nothing that can cover all their debts).

I managed to get Star Wars Rebellion to start on win 7.
Only problem is that drop down menus don't work. So I can't change build orders, mission types and stuff like that :(
Also I can't save for some reason. And c3po spends ages explaining the game at the start. JUST LET ME PLAY GOLDENROD!

Edit: It seems that I skipped a step for enabling saves and that the drop down thing is because I'm playing it windowed. I'll check once I get home.

Playing Dishonored again. I gave up half way in my first play through because it was boring me. I think playing here and there instead of playing for hours on end like I did on my first time is a lot better. Trying to stealth again but the levels are just to light, its very off putting, its Thief's fault but I feel thats how stealth should be, in the dark coming out of the shadows. Anyway thats my main gripe with the game, combat is nice and meaty but thats not my play style, I'm a gentle man. I'm going to stick with it till the end.

Geneforge as well. The first one. I'm a hour in and I just love the ambient sounds in it. Birds in the trees, the hustle and bustle of a village, brings back the memories of diving in to Baldur's gate all those years ago.

Still playing Sins: Rebellion, still enjoying myself, but 20 hours in the weaknesses in the AI are becoming hard to miss. Difficulty settings are nothing more than "throw more resources at the AI" settings, the base AI itself is just dumb as a brick unfortunately. There's an upcoming patch that I'm hoping will help, but I'm already thinking about going back to AI War (300+ hours and counting) for my space RTS fix. The AI in that thing is outright demonic.

I don't recommend it for most people, but when I played warcraft, it was strictly as a brain-off game that I could indulge in when I needed a break. It's mediocre, the combat is simple, and the story isn't a complex thing, but oddly these are why I enjoy it. It makes no demands of me. It doesn't require my focus. It's something I can do that's just absorbing enough to take my mind off everything else for a few hours, like a more sedate diablo. At that task, it's pleasingly more than adequate.

North of the Misty Mountains at Mount Gunabad, 200 tired and bloodied Dwarves led by King Dain held a ramshackle fort against 1200+ heavy Orcs. The foul beasts threw everything they had at the main gate. The dwarves plugged the breach to turn it into a battle of attrition, but eventually the overwhelming Orc numbers began to tell. It was then that King Dain slew the Orc general (after the Orc's cronies tries to get a few cheapshots in) and turned the tide. Now Dain waits for his son to come from the west and combine their strength to march south and reclaim their ancient holds.

Enjoying Total War: The Third Age. Dwarves are interesting to play. They've got the best footsoldiers in the realm with the fertility of a bag of rocks, so being outnumbered is not uncommon.

Drake, the way you described that game instantly makes me want to play it. I've never heard of TW: The Third Age before, is it a mod or dlc or an expansion? TELL ME!!

Also, playing Torchlight 2 co-op with my girlfriend. I'm an Engineer and she's playing a Berserker. It's her first aRPG and she's having fun running around with a massive cannon while I'm having fun with a shield and pistol because shield and pistol.

"Halo is designed to make the player think "I look like that, I am macho sitting in my undies with my xbox""

Drake, the way you described that game instantly makes me want to play it. I've never heard of TW: The Third Age before, is it a mod or dlc or an expansion? TELL ME!!

It's a huge mod, recreating the Middle Earth map, along with the factions, skins, and music from the films. The only catch is you have to own both Medieval 2 Total War and the Kingdoms expansion pack. Once those are installed go to the download links at http://www.moddb.com/mods/third-age-total-war and follow the instructions. I had the discs though, didn't have to look at the Steam instructions. Took me a couple of hours to get it working (mostly download time and lack of experience with mods), but it was so worth it!

Howling Banshees are absolutely the most annoying things I tried to kill in Dark Crusade. They always mass up and they always wreck my shit up and worst of all, they won't even drop after getting pelted by machineguns for God's sake! Looks like I have to use the Muhreens again but even with that I'm not sure

Brütal Legend: This game should be one of the most amusing and awesome third person brawler games of the past generation. Its not totally offensive for someone who likes metal, its Double Fine humor, its got a boatload of variety it looks great and and and... god damn! This should be brilliant!
Its not brilliant though, as it plays like crap. I think JG Man here summed it up quite well for how far I am in (only a couple of hours) in that if you are not really into metal there is not much here worth staying for. I'm just waiting for the "Halford" moment that the game is hinting at, and the "Kill-master" made me chuckle, but then again, like memes, unless you know the context behind the joke its possibly not going to be funny.

Howling Banshees are absolutely the most annoying things I tried to kill in Dark Crusade. They always mass up and they always wreck my shit up and worst of all, they won't even drop after getting pelted by machineguns for God's sake! Looks like I have to use the Muhreens again but even with that I'm not sure

I love playing as the Eldar in DoW/2. I'm not at all good enough to play them seriously, although the smaller scale of DoW2 did get me to appreciate their nuances better, but they're so satisfying to play with. Getting Howling Banshees right into the mix looks so cool. They're god damn scary in Last Stand though.

Originally Posted by Scumbag

Brütal Legend: This game should be one of the most amusing and awesome third person brawler games of the past generation. Its not totally offensive for someone who likes metal, its Double Fine humor, its got a boatload of variety it looks great and and and... god damn! This should be brilliant!
Its not brilliant though, as it plays like crap. I think JG Man here summed it up quite well for how far I am in (only a couple of hours) in that if you are not really into metal there is not much here worth staying for. I'm just waiting for the "Halford" moment that the game is hinting at, and the "Kill-master" made me chuckle, but then again, like memes, unless you know the context behind the joke its possibly not going to be funny.

With the recent Double Fine bundle, I've noticed a few people saying that Psychonauts is an okay game with a great sense of humour, dialogue, characters, design etc. Enough, regardless, to boost the overall experience up. I think I agree with that. When was the last time that you heard of DF making a game where the actual game part was specifically highlighted over everything sense? It's this point where I feel like some people are maybe in the wrong medium. Imagine a film/animation by Double Fine? I reckon it'd be really, really great and you wouldn't be let down by any failing game mechanics.

With BL I just felt that the surrounding part of the game was not good enough to boost the simply bad game-play up enough to make it bearable. And even then, I think there comes a point where no matter how good the surrounding material, if the game is really that bad, I'm sorry, but I have to leave it. Obviously that depends on tolerance, but more and more lately I'm finding myself in the position that there are so many games out there, many of a not insignificant length, that why would I want to play sub-standard games when I could be playing others that are objectively superior? I dunno. I was let down by BL even after knowing that it was really an RTS, but neither that or the hack'n'slash were developed enough, nor enough variety in content, that I could be kept interested. And it's a shame because so much effort went into it. So much!

Essays aside, I've played a few minutes of Super Hexagon to remind me that I bloody love it, but also that playing it simply a few minutes at a time isn't enough to get back into it. Also, everyone should buy this game because it's bloody fantastic. Played a little more Deus Ex: Human Circle and it's still enjoyable. I like the direction the plot is going on, but I have a feeling the way I'm playing it it's going to be a long time until I get to the conclusion. Every so often been dipping into the Sonic Unleashed mod for Sonic Generations. Completed 7 out of the 9 levels, with the last two left being the ones I don't really enjoy too much. The mod is fantastic though and I strongly recommend anyone who played Generations to pick it up. Adds a lot of very fun, very cool content. Oh, and tons of PlanetSide 2. Pretty dang great.

It's this point where I feel like some people are maybe in the wrong medium. Imagine a film/animation by Double Fine? I reckon it'd be really, really great and you wouldn't be let down by any failing game mechanics.

Not in full agreement there. They come up with lots of concepts that would be awesome if they got them right, but they rarely do. If anything they need someone who whips them into shape every time they start jamming more and more bloat in, knuckling down and testing things fully before shipping it.

BL felt like it was made backwards though; starting with all the styling and concepts before trying to get the game done last. There is a lot of love in it, and I very much doubt it would work as a cartoon as well (I found Metalocalypse to be very bland or just outright backward, despite the humor being in the same vein), just I wish they got the basic mechanics correct in at least the hack and slash parts.
I do wonder who the target audience is with this though. Half the "TRUE" metal heads I've known are some of the greatest Luddites I've ever known, to the point where certain people couldn't operate a Playstation because it was "too complex".

Played through Spec Ops: The Line in one sitting. Enjoyed (guess that's the closest word to the right way of putting it) the story and gameplay for the most part, but the ending assault to the tower can go right ahead and fuck itself. I died a ridiculous amount of times at that part, and those just felt like cheap deaths.